Heretofore, temperature compensation in an electronic timepiece has been effected in an analog manner with the aid of a temperature-sensitive element. For example, it has been proposed to effect the temperature compensation of an oscillator circuit by means of a combination of a temperature-sensitive resistor element and a variable diode or to effect the temperature compensation of an oscillator circuit including a crystal oscillator and incorporated into an integrated circuit by means of a combination of the temperature-sensitive resistor element and a capacitor.
The above-described temperature-compensating device has the disadvantage that the temperature-sensitive resistor element changes considerably after a lapse of time to render the operation of the circuit unstable, i.e. it is difficult to incorporate the circuit element into an integrated circuit, and the compensating characteristic of the temperature sensitive resistor element must be matched with the temperature characteristic of the reference oscillator.